Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Well, it didn't take long for our hopes of reconciliation to be dashed. Rorate Caeli has excerpts from a speech given by Bishop Bernard Fellay last week. some excerpts.

And now, we are, should we say, something like at a crossroads. And in a certain way, Rome is telling us, 'OK, we are ready to lift up the excommunication, but you cannot continue this way"

So, we have no choice, we are not going this way, we are continuing what we have done, we have fought now for forty years to keep this faith alive. To keep this Tradition not only for ourselves, but for the Church. And we are just going to continue, happens what happens. Everything is in God's hands. If God wants this proof, this trial to continue, it may continue. He will give us the grace we need for it. No fear, we'll wait for better times. That's what the Archbishop said twenty years ago. That's what we continue to say today.

Additionally Rorate relays some additional info on the mood of the SSPX from Father Adam Portugal of the SSPX and some dinner conversation he had with BIshop Fellay.

At any rate, Rome apparently has set an ultimatum, it's what he said, for the end of this month of June, it's what he said. He does not know what that means, what the ultimatum means, what will happen, but that was what he said, and, basically, and he mentioned at the dinner, it was not in the sermon, he brought it up in the dinner, that the, uh, the points...[sic] He got a fax from Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos in French stating some four or five points, basically of what Rome expects from the Society of Saint Pius X. Basically, of course, you know, sign, sign up [...], right? But basically it's 'be quiet'. 'Fine, you can say the Latin Mass, fine you'll be recognized'...At any rate, so, Rome has made this known, public, His Excellency made it a public concern to everyone at Wino...[sic], at the ordinations, so. But, to reassure the faithful, that's all, to simply reassure the faithful that we carry on, and if Rome wants to punish us for that, well, hey, I'm sorry, what is our crime? For a punishment, there must be a crime.

When the public reads the five conditions, and realizes how reasonable they are, pressure will increase dramatically on Bishop Fellay to make this first simple act of submission.

The five conditions could only be seen as harmful by the most schismatic branch of the SSPX, a branch Bishop Fellay might need to trim if he is to hope the SSPX will have any future in the business of saving souls.

Hate to say it, but I told you so. But what I told everyone was that the journalists were blowing steam, especially about the 'prelature'. IT WILL NOT BE A PRELATURE BUT A DIOCESE OR ITS EQUIVALENT. They keep bring up 'prelatures' because they are referring back to their ignorant notes of 2000 and 2001. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

But what we are on the verge of is Step Two. If the Society signs to the five points, Rome will withdraw the excommunications and other penalties. She might also clarify at the highest level (the P.C.L.T. and NOT the P.C.E.D.) whether or not Society Masss fulfil the obligation and under what conditions (if any). That could be major--major.

I note that H.H. recently replaced Cardinal Vallini, head of the Apostolic Signatura, Vallini was widely believed to oppose the contention that the Society Masses do not fulfil the obligation (that's what a canonist told me). I am wondering if there is a connexion there. But I cast this as speculation, not as some fact supported by nothing.